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Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically, which we share with Chickens, Cats, Guinea Pigs and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I work as an environmental educator, lecturer, writer and Forest School leader at Moors Wood . I am a Master Composter and have spent the last 11 years as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council. I offer talks and run workshops and events where we talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. We also make crafts and have fun.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!

Tuesday, 14 October 2008

A moulting Henny and other hennish doings!

I have had a very strange experience today! Earlier on today I had Ginger the Hen tap on the back door, squark meaningfully at me ( anyone who has hens will know what I mean!) lead me across the garden to the hen paddock, stand squarking by the gate till I shut away the chicks and let her in, and then she LEGGED it for the hen house and the nest box...to lay an egg....

I think that's quite clever!

Poor Henny! She is loosing her feathers at an alarming rate and is quite miserable and bad tempered with it all....she even had a go at Ginger, her very best mate! When she shakes herself, a cloud of feathers surrounds her.

You can see her bald bum in this one!

This one was taken half an hour later by which time she had lost all her tail feathers.

Feathers litter the floor and run of Cluckingham Palace! Genghis hen peers out of the nest box at me.

Sweetie is moulting as well, but she seems to have grown new feathers before shedding the old ones, so is not looking TOO threadbare!

This is Number 1 cockerel, he is always the first out and the last one back in the run at night, he refuses to go back in with all the others and I have to chase him round and rounds the Eglu run, until he deigns to go in.....typical male!